5 - Civilian Agency and its Limits: Community Protection in Deir Hafer and Kasab

Summary

Civilian agency during state atrophy did not express itself in sectarian terms alone despite processes of sectarianisation and the consolidation of sect-based organisations in the military and religious domains. Often dismissed as inconsequential, civilians and civilian organisations were actively involved in efforts of community protection during the conflict. Community protection efforts by civilians at the local level are also expressions of civilian agency that often defied and sometimes reinforced processes of sectarianisation. Either way, political action did not stem from sectarian predispositions or objectives alone. Despite its discursive prevalence, sectarianism was not a primary organising principle for collective mobilisation in efforts of community protection.

Community protection efforts by civilians stemmed in response to local conditions of state atrophy and security threats. This chapter provides a documentation of such examples in Deir Hafer and Kasab, and focuses on four main variables that shaped the nature and outcome of civilian com-munity protection efforts: (1) modalities of violence against civilians, (2) organisational capacity of civilian community organisers, (3) their local autonomy and (4) social trust within the areas examined. The chapter answers the following key questions: (1) What are the range of threats and shocks that civilians confront under conditions of state atrophy as witnessed in Deir Hafer and Kasab? (2) What strategies for community protection were employed by civilians in an attempt to protect themselves and their communities from dynamics of state atrophy? (3) What conditions limited civilian efforts of community protection? Based on the two divergent case studies, the chapter depicts variations in local circumstances, patterns of community mobilisation throughout the conflict and variables that eventually undermined efforts to resist, cope and adapt to rapidly shifting institutional landscapes.

Strategies of civilian community protection in Kasab and Deir Hafer include negotiating for safe spaces, bargaining with armed groups (state and non-state actors), developing norms of civilian non-collaboration to resist militarisation against other communities, assisting in procurement and distribution of relief and creating civilian-led bodies to adjudicate disputes amongst civilians as well as between civilians and armed actors. The experiences of these two communities reflect the broader range of threats experienced by communities across the country since the onset of violence.